rain and mild temperatures create obstacles for summer businesses

Anyone who’s lived on the Seacoast for any length of time has probably noticed that this summer’s weather has strayed a bit from the norm. Heavy rains and flooding this spring seem to have set the stage for buckets of precipitation even after the “April showers,” and the unusually warm winter has given way to a relatively chilly summer. This is great news for our air conditioners, but not for local businesses that rely on heat and sunshine to stay afloat.

As of July 24, precipitation statistics for the Concord area revealed a whopping 4.79 inches of rain in the first three weeks of the month—almost doubling the July average of 2.5 inches. “Last year on this date we had 3.3 inches of precipitation for the month,” said John Jensenius of the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. “For the past few years, this year especially, we’re definitely above normal.”

July temperatures were also below average, according to Jensenius. “The average sky cover has been about seven tenths of the time, which is probably a little more than normal,” he said. “For July, the average temp is 67.7, which is about 2.1 degrees below normal. Just to show you the range, the highest for the month is 87 degrees, and the coldest was a chilly 42.” Many outdoor and recreational businesses felt the effects of this strange July, during which nights were only 10 degrees away from showing frost in the morning.

Cool temperatures and heavy rains have forced Emery Farm, off Route 4 in Durham, to make some changes to this year’s berry schedule. “The blueberries are about five days later than normal, what with the cool nights and stuff, so the season will probably be extended a little,” said farmer Bill Towle of Emery Farm. He added that the spring conditions were more detrimental to crops than July’s weather. “The rain and the cool affected things more in the spring than now,” Towle said. “It caused us to put the corn in later, ’cause you just couldn’t even get on the ground to get them in.”

Conditions for the farm haven’t been ideal this season, but they haven’t been terrible either, especially compared to last year. “We don’t have strawberries anymore. We lost all the plants during the mother’s day floods last year,” Towle said. “They just rotted. We didn’t bother putting them all back in.” Right now, the rain is both good and bad news for Emery Farm—it sets back the berry season a bit but helps corn plants catch up after a late start.

Sales at the Pease Golf Course are also getting a later start after heavy rains early in the season. “With the floods and rain in the spring, it definitely slowed things down a lot, but June and July have been great,” said the course’s head professional, Tim Riese. Similarly, Portsmouth Kayak Adventures has not suffered much from the summer weather. “We’ve had a few on and off weeks, but overall the sales have been pretty steady,” said kayak tour guide Andrew Eery. “I’d say the nice days have been so crowded that it definitely makes up for the slower ones.”

Water Country, the region’s local water sports destination on Route 1 in Portsmouth, hasn’t been so lucky. With the conspicuous absence of sweltering days so far this summer, daily attendance has dropped by thousands, according to an employee who answered a call to the park’s information line but declined to identify herself. Operations manager Andy Nitschelm confirmed that business has been “down lately because of the weather.” He refused to release exact attendance figures, saying it is against company policy to do so.

With the weather turning hot and humid last week, beach crowds are just beginning to experience the normal summer mobs. On the whole, rain and clouds have discouraged beachgoers significantly during the past month or so. “It’s like every year: people play the weather,” said Joe Bolis of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce. “The past month has been a little slower due to the rain, and I’d imagine business around here is down a bit because of that. Right now (July 26), though, it’s packed. I think there’s only two hotels in the area that have a room available.” The real question now is whether this warm weather will continue for the rest of the summer, boosting tourism, beach business and berry yields.

“We haven’t had the real, real hot temperatures that we usually get,” said Jensenius. “We’re in a pattern where the hot weather is staying out west, and because of where we are with respect to the jet stream, we’ve been getting a lot more stormy weather than usual. We are going to see some warmer temperatures coming from the west in the next couple of weeks, though,” he added.

But you can’t always trust the weather forecast, so it might be best to take a step outside before you grab your beach towel or your berry basket.